It was 3 weeks before I could drive. I had a mastectomy on left side with sentinel node. 1 node was positive so 7 days after mastectomy I had 9 more nodes surgically removed and my porta cath was put in on right side. All 9 nodes were negative. The surgeon said no driving until you are off the pain pills. I took pain pills for a couple of days after each surgery.

The seat belt was my biggest problem when I began to drive again. I had the mastectomy on the left and the "brand new port" on the right. I had to drive with a small pillow under the seal belt for awhile. Needless to say I wasn't up for any lengthy trips at that time.

Someone told me I could have gotten a prescription from the surgeon allowing me to drive without my seat belt for a certain amount of time. You could look into that.

I think the length of time largely depends on how well you're doing. If you have a lot of pain..you'll be on pain medication. You can't drive while taking pain medications.

My drains were in for almost a month...There is no way I could drive with drains. I was wrapped up in big bandages for 3 weeks...It's difficult to put clothes on over it all..I wore a robe and pj bottoms the whole time..plus showering is a big issue...so you don't really feel like you look your best to be out and about...

If you're going straight from surgery into chemo or radiation..you may be taking again..more medications...

Speaking of pain...my friend went with me into surgery pre-op and talked a mile a minute to my surgeon about the "lack of adequate pain control"...and he prescribed 7 days of the stuff in the drip at the hospital. After that I moved to vicodin. Don't underestimate the amount of trauma that is happening to you. You can make things far worse if you plan on jumping right back into the grind. You can pull the internal stitches and not even know it...except for the pain...Be kind to yourself...and you'll heal faster.

Before my mastectomy..I cooked and froze about 2 weeks of casseroles, spaghetti, macaroni cheese, porkchops & dressing, meatloaf, made mashed potatoes and froze them....I bought those disposable aluminum tins and filled up my freezer. Take a run through your cabinets & fridge for those staples that are running low..get them now.

Contact your friends and family and ask for help....Assign a day to a friend for her to bring over dinner and help around the house. You may need someone to assist you with showering and re-bandaging you.

It's ok to ask for help..really...

You don't have to be superwoman....

When you look for the best in those around you...You'll usually find it.

Alene, in reviewing your signature it looks like you had several months of chemo before your surgery. I'm sure that made a big difference in how fast you bounced back from surgery. Those drainage bags are a challenge aren't they? I kept mine 5 days after each of my surgeries. I was lucky in that respect.

I had my surgeries a couple of weeks after my diagnosis and then my chemo. Surgeries June 15 & 22, 2006. Chemo (adromician and cytoxin began August 8, 2006) This gave me a few weeks between surgery and treatments.

I did not drive for about 3 months after I started my chemo. I had dose dense chemo every 2 weeks for 4 months. My oncologist explained that the chemo was all I would have and I needed to stay as strong as possible so I wouldn't have to miss a treatment or get one of lesser strength. I stayed pretty confined during my treatments because i did not want to get a virus or pick up an unwanted "bug". A couple of times my counts were low, but not too low for my regular treatment.

I was lucky that my husband and son were available to take me for treatments, lab work, etc. I shopped for hats and some pieces of clothing out of the TLC catalog. I bought a wig a few weeks after I found out I would have to have chemo. My church friends and people from my work place were so generous with food.

I know ladies that played cards, went shopping, went out to eat, etc throughout their treatment. I would see them at the support group meetings and they though I was crazy. All of them knew that there was tamaxofin and herceptin or some other drugs for them after treatment. I know these drugs are not the answer to everything, but it sounded better than knowing there was nothing beyond my chemo.

I guess you can call this being strong, but believe me I didn't feel strong. I just want to live. I have found out that virtually none of my acquaintenances know "squat" about trip-negative. I was so excited on July 9, 2009 when my oncologist told me there was still very little out there for us trip-negatives, but he knew about the tnbcfoundation.org site. For three years I feel as though I have been in the dark, but now I can see the light. I have read so many of the posts on this site and no longer feel so alone.

Julie, I'm sorry if my first post mislead you about driving, but this truly is NOT a "one size fits all" disease. I'm also glad you can ask for guidance at the beginning of this journey, instead of three years later, as was my experience.

I was able to drive after my masectomy quite soon. I also had it on my left side and had 21 nodes removed. Two were positive. I used a small pillow under the seat blelt to make it more comfortable-it worked very well. I also used the pillow when I was being driven.

I didn't drive for about 8 weeks after my left mastectomy. Had considerable weakness and limited motion in left arm. My car was at the mechanics, so had to use my son's car- it had a manual transmission and no power steering.

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